Saturday, February 23, 2013

Led by Gen. Italo Balbo, a formation of 25 Savoia Marchetti S.55X twin-hull flying boats flew from Orbetello (Toscana) to Chicago via Amsterdam, Londonderry, Reykjavik, Cartwright, Shediac, and Montreal. Greeted by a huge crowd of the Century of Progress exhibition visitors, the formation proceeded to New York, and returned to Italy via Shediac, Shoal Harbour, Ponta Delgada, and Lisbon.

They did it in one month and 12 days. One aircraft was lost in an accident during return flight.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Rosemount Square (actually horse shoe shaped) was a social experiment which grew from an exploration of what a modern tenement could be like, a far cry from the then typical tenement building of the Scottish cities. The building was inspired by visits to social housing in Europe. Rosemount Square was largely designed by Leo Durnin under Alexander Buchanan Gardner at the City Architect’s Department. It is one of the last granite load bearing buildings in Aberdeen (as opposed to using a steel frame). It is Grade A listed.

Included in the building cost were three sculptured panels by Thomas Huxley-Jones representing Rain Wind, and Cold but only Wind (above) and Rain were completed, in an effort to save money.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A pamphlet issued for the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow to extol
the values of the Docks at Southampton - the Southern Railway were
mighty proud of these important port installations and made the claim
that they were the Empire port. The image show the 'new' Western
Docks, the massive quays that substantially extended the port's
facilities and that opened in 1934.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Members of the French Army man an acoustic locator device on January 4, 1940.

The device was one of many experimental designs, built to pick up the sound of distant aircraft engines and give their distance and location. The introduction and adoption of radar technology rendered these devices obsolete very quickly.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

USS Washington, a 35,000-ton North Carolina class battleship, was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania.

She commissioned in May 1941 and was in the Atlantic during "close to war" and wartime operations for more than a year. From April into July 1942 Washington worked with the British Home Fleet in the North Atlantic.

She was then overhauled and sent to the South Pacific, where, in September, she joined U.S. forces engaged in the Guadalcanal Campaign. On 14-15 November 1942, she was flagship of Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee in the last part of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. During that night action, her sixteen-inch guns fatally damaged the Japanese battleship Kirishima.

Washington worked in the South and Central Pacific into 1944. She took part in the invasions of the Gilbert Islands in November 1943 and the Marshalls early in the new year. On 1 February 1944, during the latter operation, she crushed her bow in a collision with the battleship USS Indiana (BB-58). Following repairs, Washington rejoined the fleet in time to participate in the Marianas invasion in June 1944, and in the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea.

During the next year, Washington took part in operations to capture the Palaus, Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, as well as supporting the fast carriers on their raids throughout the Western Pacific. She was undergoing overhaul during the last two months of the Pacific War and, in October 1945, steamed through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic. Her final active duty was to transport veteran servicemen home from Europe. USS Washington was placed out of commission in June 1947 and was in "mothballs" from then until May 1961, when she was sold for scrapping.